Nights Like Tonight
by AddictedToStory
Summary: "It's raining. Because it always rains on nights like tonight. Nights when sweet, innocent, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly girls show up at their best friends' doorsteps with tears streaming down their faces. Tonight, Cat Valentine is that girl."
1. Chapter 1

It's raining. Because it always rains on nights like tonight. Nights when sweet, innocent, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly girls show up at their best friends' doorsteps with tears streaming down their faces. Tonight, Cat Valentine is that girl. The one whose heart was broken into a million unrecognizable pieces by someone she was supposed to be able to trust.

Of course she couldn't trust Robbie. She should have known. He always seemed like such a nice guy, but Jade had always said she thought he was faking it.

("How could anyone with such a rude puppet actually be nice? Face it, Kitty, he's just as bad as the rest of them.")

Jade. Cat could always trust Jade. Ever since they were little, Jade had been there to beat up her bullies and pick up the pieces her heart would inevitably break into because of them. Cat needed Jade. Always had, always will.

Which is why, on nights like tonight, when everything seems dark and she sort of feels like dying, Cat makes the long journey to a silver RV parked in a driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac. Jade will be here. Jade is always here.

Cat doesn't have to say a word when an overtired Beck Oliver with uncharacteristically messy hair opens the door. He takes one look at her and steps aside to let her in. She immediately moves towards the tiny twin bed where Jade is just starting to wake up. The process is expedited when she takes one look at Cat and the tears streaming down her cheeks. Jade pulls the covers back and Cat immediately dives into the bed, cuddling into Jade's side as close as she can.

Jade just lets her cry, holding her close and stroking her wet hair. She isn't the type to whisper that everything will be okay and she doesn't tell Cat that Robbie is an ass and she deserves better or anything of the sort. She's completely silent, but she has Cat tightly wrapped up in her hug and she makes sure Beck gets her a glass of water and Cat doesn't feel so much like dying anymore. Color comes back into the world in the form of electric blue hair extensions and a silver eyebrow piercing. Cat is safe because Jade is here and Jade will protect her.

Cat isn't sure how long she spends crying, but Jade never makes any attempt to move her until her breathing has evened out and her sobs have turned into soft sniffles. Once Cat has downed the entire glass of water, Jade gently lies her down on the mattress and tucks her in. Cat holds onto her wrist tightly in case she tries to leave, but Jade never makes any attempt to. She lies down right next to her and lets Cat curl up around her body before pressing a small kiss on her forehead. She is vaguely aware that Beck has set up a makeshift bed for himself on the couch. Cat breathes in the scent of the RV. That scent that is exactly half Jade (apples and coffee and mint) and half Beck (soap and pine and something she can't place) and that she has always associated with love.

She's positive Jade will kill Robbie tomorrow and she is at least eighty five percent sure that Beck will help her do it, but tonight is calm and peaceful and safe. Cat is asleep in minutes, counting out Jade's heartbeat until the nice sort of blackness envelopes the world.

* * *

**So, there are a few directions I could go in with this story. I could leave it as a one-shot, or turn it into a multi-chapter. If I do the latter, I can stick with the Bade romance and Cade/Bat friendships or I could make it a poly relationship. I think that dynamic could be really interesting and I haven't seen any stories that explore it. Let me know what you think.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-J**


	2. Chapter 2

Jade has never been very emotionally open. Cat knows this. Jade has never been one to cry when she's sad or smile when she's happy or laugh when she finds something to be funny. Jade would like everyone to believe that she doesn't feel those emotions at all, but Cat knows that she does. And Cat has gotten very good at noticing the ways that Jade _does _express emotion. For example, Cat knows that Jade is angry and worried and sympathetic all because of the fact that Jade doesn't leave her side for the entire school day.

Jade and Beck drove her to school (they even bought her a strawberry smoothie from JetBrew!). Jade walked her to her locker and to her science class, listening to her talk about her brother's birthday and the cat video she saw online and even participating in her new knock-knock joke (with only minimal resistance). Beck picked her up from math and walked her to the Asphalt Cafe. They made sure she never once had to see Robbie. And she found out later from Tori that Robbie had been trying very hard to get a minute alone with her.

Now, Cat was sitting on Jade's ridiculously large, ridiculously soft bed, watching Jade get ready for her date night with Beck. Ever since they got back together at the end of last year, they had had a standing date every Friday. On this particular Friday, Beck was taking Jade to some super fancy restaurant that all three of them knew wasn't really Jade's style. Still, Beck had insisted. Apparently, his parents had refused to let Jade join the Olivers at a similarly fancy dinner on Beck's birthday. So, in true Beck fashion, he decided to use the birthday money they gave him to make it up to her.

Cat watches as Jade cyclically flicks through the dresses hanging up in her closet, pausing at one or another during every rotation to consider it and then eventually deciding against it and restarting. In Cat's opinion, though Jade didn't ask for it, Jade would look good in every single one of those dresses and should honestly just start on her hair already because it was a mess from earlier when she wrestled her phone away from her nosy little brother, Luke.

(That had been necessary, though, because he had come dangerously close to seeing a series of text messages between Jade and Beck that should never be seen by anyone other than the two of them, ever.)

Amidst a series of grumbled complaints just this side of intelligible, Jade finally chooses a very dark red dress and stomps off to her en suite bathroom to get ready.

Despite what may be deemed as evidence to the contrary by those who don't know Jade as well as Cat does, Jade isn't angry or anything. Just nervous and a little bit frustrated because of both Robbie and the aforementioned wrestling match.

"So, you really don't mind me staying here while you're with Beck? 'Cause I can totally go home if you want me to," Cat calls through the almost closed door. She had barely had to bring up the idea at lunch before Jade agreed to let her stay.

("But you have to promise me you won't mess with anything that looks weird or get glitter on anything I own. I mean it, Kitty Cat. No. Glitter.")

"Of course I don't mind, Babe. Everyone will be gone by the time I leave, so you'll have the place to yourself for the night. On the off chance Dad or the stepmonster get home early, just call me, okay?"

(Jade only ever uses the nicknames when it's just the two of them and only ever when she's happy. When she hears them, Cat smiles so hard her face hurts. Every. Single. Time.)

"Kay kay!" Cat replies cheerfully, bouncing on the mattress a little bit as she scrolls through TheSlap. A comfortable silence falls over them, broken only by Cat's occasional laughter or Jade's angry curses when her makeup doesn't turn out the way she wants.

Eventually, Jade emerges from the bathroom wearing the red dress, which hits her mid thigh and hugs her curves tightly. She wears her normal dark makeup, if just a bit heavier than what she puts on for school, and her hair is curled perfectly, extensions taken out because she evidently didn't like the way any of the colors looked with the dress. Cat recognizes the washer necklace that matches Beck's, two pairs of silver earrings with a matching cuff near the top of her ear, and the normal eyebrow and nose studs glittering in the light. Cat thinks it's sort of ironic considering the no-glitter speech she'd gotten earlier, but whatever. Jadey looks pretty and Cat isn't about to risk making her bright smile drop back into a scowl.

Cat's already spent a good minute assuring Jade that different parts of her outfit are absolutely fine (perfect, even, but Cat wouldn't say that out loud) when she notices that Jade has the charm bracelet Cat bought her before her first play at Hollywood Arts clasped around her wrist. Cat resists the urge to make a big deal about it because she doesn't want Jade to get embarrassed or defensive or take it off.

Jade has just strapped on a pair of black heels that make her almost as tall as Beck and _way_ taller than Cat, when her phone chimes. Jade's still double-checking everything in the mirror, so Cat grabs her phone, types in the password Jade told her in seventh grade that she'd worked _really _hard to memorize, and reads the message to her.

_hey babe. two minutes away._

"Tell him I'll be outside in three." Cat relays the message to Beck and sits back on the bed criss-cross-applesauce. She watches intently as Jade scrutinizes her appearance in the mirror. Cat seriously doesn't get how Jade can be self conscious. She is _so _pretty.

Cat opens her mouth to tell Jade as much, but is interrupted by Luke telling them that his ride is here to take him to Tyler's house. She gets distracted by the feathers poking through the material of Jade's pillow and never ends up saying it.

Jade finally decides she looks okay after one more coat of lip gloss and turns to give Cat a nervous smile.

"Alright. I'm ready. Seriously, call if you need anything. We can come home if we have to. No big deal. Don't stalk Robbie's Slap page or eat too much candy."

(Cat not-so-discreetly flips her phone over so Jade can't see Robbie's page open and pushes the packet of Skittles under the pillow. Jade pretends she doesn't notice.)

"Love you," Cat calls as Jade grabs her purse and heads towards the hallway. She really doesn't expect to hear the words back. She's only heard them a handful of times since the first time she told Jade she loved her back in fourth grade.

Which is why she's completely caught off guard when she hears "Love you too!" from the foyer. A huge grin spreads across her face and she spends the rest of the night replaying the words in her head. She sort of forgets Robbie exists. Sort of.

Jade was _so pretty_.

* * *

**So, what do you guys think? I was pretty nervous about doing a second chapter, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. A few things:**

**Timeline-wise, I'm putting this in their senior year of high school. Jade and Beck are eighteen, Cat is seventeen. We can assume they were juniors at the end of season four because Trina is still going to school there in Victori-Yes, so this is a few months after the show ends. **

**I've decided I'm going to attempt a Cat/Beck/Jade romance. Jade is already super close with both of them, but it'll be a while before Beck and Cat are close enough for that. By a while I mean, like, five chapters probably because I suck at being patient. **

**Please let me know what you thought. I've got a lot of pretty cute ideas planned, but I'm always open to suggestions. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-J**


End file.
